Country RepTrak™: A Standardized Measure of Country Reputation

The increased global accessibility of information through the internet and other digital channels has increased the importance of managing a country’s reputation. Events happening in any country in the world can become world news within minutes, and can dramatically influence public opinion about the country. In turn, public opinion can substantially influence diplomatic relations between countries, the number of tourists visiting a country, and the level of foreign investment in that country (Kotler and Gertner 2002; Papadopoulos and Heslop 2002; Yang et al. 2008). These effects are especially relevant for developing countries that compete increasingly with other developing countries for tourism and foreign investment from developed nations. Kotler and Gertner (2002) describe how, in the 1990s, ‘underdog’ Costa Rica won a major deal from Intel Corporation to establish a production plant, principally because of its investment in reputation management. In addition, a country’s reputation can substantially boost or impede the success of products originating from that country seen from the point of view of other countries (Verlegh and Steenkamp 1999). For example, on hearing that a product originates from Germany or Japan, many consumers will ascribe a high level of reliability and overall quality to the product, because, at least in part, of the established reputations of these countries.